Sadhana – This is a procedure where in
- Sadhaka takes permission from guru to do a pre-decided number of japa, in a muhurta, with sankalpa
- Guru provides specific procedure to be followed
- Japa quantity is pre-decided, number of days is predecided
- Aim is to do pratyaksheekaran of the deity, and get vardaan from them.
- One sadhana is not just insufficient to do pratyaksheekaran, but even if some sadhaka assumes, they will get pratyaksheekaran in a single sadhana, that is purely idiotic.
- Sadhana should be never attempted without accepting a guru, who already has pratyaksheekaran of the said deity.
Upasana :
- Upasana can be done by any Grihastha.
- Aim of upasana is to get Kripa of the Ishta and to add to the cosmic energy of that Ishta by serving the deity.
- Jeevas who do upasana, are taken care of through their births, by the guru tradition and by the Ishta.
- Upasana can be done “Sakaam”, i.e. having some material desire, or just to earn cosmic energy of your Ishta for sva-kalyan.
- If jeeva does regular upasana of an Ishta without having any material desires, that is what helps jeeva in progressing its spiritual journey, including upgradation of their Varna, Jati, Yoni across multiple births.